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CSW GroupComponent reuse
Depending on the publisher, the benefit of reusing common content over a collection of publications can be very compelling. Component reuse allows organisations to store and maintain specifications, glossaries, references or other common content in a central source and then reference for inclusion in the main content stream of a publication.
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For example, this technique is very useful in creating user manuals for devices (for example cellular telephones, washing machines). User documentation for different models & languages tend to have large amounts of content commonality especially across similar products from the same manufacturer. Examples of safety information, device specifications and content such as documentation on Graphical User Interfaces are all common across a number of manuals. Using traditional publishing systems requires a lengthy manual process to edit every usage of the common text every time one piece of content changes.
By using XML and managing content in CSW’s Knowledge Engineering System (KES) it is possible to edit common content once and these changes will then cascade through every publication where the common component is used. KES also reports on how content components are being reused throughout every publication held in the system. Link management reports on dead links and provides historical information to show how the content looked on a particular past date.
